Teacher

1) What do you think (if anything), people assume about you because of your race (personality, socioeconomic status, culture, childhood)? Have you tried to change or conform to their assumption?

People assume that I am from New York. They assume that I can relate better to me if they “talk ghetto.”

2) How does Andover approach racial divisions and diversity on campus? How does this approach integrate minority students into our community?

We address that it exist in the world but we don’t address it on campus. We establish that it exist but no one ever talks about it. I think the school works hard to add diversity but I think it starts and stops at admissions.

3) Is there a “typical black Andover student” if so how would you define him or her?

No there isn’t and that is one of the problems. We stereotype all the black students to fit into one category but the stereotypes aren’t true. They don’t allow students to express themselves.

4) What does it mean to be “pretty for a black girl?”

I normally don’t find you attractive

5) Have people ever qualified you based on your race for example, “You are articulate for a black person, you are bad at dancing for a black person”

I try to make a huge point in my class that as a black teacher I naturally know more about black history. Students often say that because of this I am not a serious scholar. They feel like they are missing out on learning and I quote a student about “important things”

6) Do you feel that there is self-segregation or segregation within our community based on race?

It looks like that because it is so visually obvious. We are so conditioned to recognize it that we see it. Maybe all the lacrosse players sit together and all the hockey players sitting together but when all the black students sit together, we term it “self segregation” but we don’t call the hokey players self segregating